Golf writer & photographer. Author of ‘Hooked’, the most comprehensive guide to Ireland's golf courses, and ‘Driving the Green’. Published by Collins Press. Editor for Destination Golf Ireland, feature writer for Irish Golfer Magazine freelancer for Irish Examiner. Golf is in the blood. http://www.kevinmarkhamphotography.com

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Golf Digest Ireland Top 100 Courses 2018 vs. Irish Golfer Top 100

Royal Portrush... No. 2 in both lists.

Finally Golf Digest Ireland (GDI) have released their Top 100 golf courses for 2018. We've been waiting a while! Especially as the Irish Golfer magazine Top 100 came out in November. Two Irish magazines going head to head is very refreshing indeed.

There are surprisingly few changes in GDI's 2018 results - compared to 2017 - so I have included these when setting the two rankings side by side below.

I have highlighted the courses where there are interesting variations (in green) and where there are serious variations (in red)... not surprisingly most of the red highlights appear in the second half with Dun Laoghaire and Tramore being notable exceptions.

The panels for the magazines were quite different as were the rating criteria.

Here are the rankings... enjoy... and decide for yourself which ranking is more to your taste.

Rankings 1 to 25

The Island is 8th in the Irish Golfer ranking... and 13th in GDI's

Rankings 26 to 50

The K Club (Smurfit) course... not much difference between the two lists

The yellow highlight for the K Club (Smurfit), Castletroy and Dundalk are where GDI have incorrectly entered the position from last year. The K Club was actually up 1, Castletroy was down 3 and Dundalk was the same.

Rankings 51 to 75

Powerscourt West is 15 places higher in the Irish Golfer ranking
and inside the top 50.

In all, there are eight courses on GDI's list which are not on Irish Golfer's (and vice versa)

Rankings 76 to 100

Castle Golf Club is a whopping 22 places higher in the Irish Golfer ranking
and, more importantly, pips Grange as Dublin city's best parkland.

No doubt you'll have issues with both rankings... that's the nature of such lists... but, as I've always said, perhaps it will encourage you to go and play a course you haven't played before. After all, Irish golf has so much choice.